Tinkerbell wrote:I'm against the feathers and the burning of plastic. AMEN

I often think it's funny that because it's a specific written rule, it makes people even more self-righteous. That's people!

Fiery words are spoken about feathers, but in the same breath, members here will encourage people to bring zip ties — which I suspect are extremely common MOOP and hard to find as well. I am very curious to know what the most prevalent MOOP found by the DPW crew doing sweeps after the event. I'd like to avoid explicit bans, but I think there's a place for pride/shame to come into it. What if the most prevalent MOOP were next year's shame; avoiding (or preventing its hitting the ground) the new pride?

You have to pick your battles. Feathers are an easy one because 99% of people who bring them are just going to buy some flimsy headbands or scarves off the shelf at the Costumes R Us. Pics of chicken costumes just encourage the practice.

Zip-ties can be dealt with during take-down because they don't fly off to the trash fence when they get loose, and you can pick them up easily if you put down a tarp first.

I'm sure the greater bulk of moop and trash in general is food and drink packaging, trash bags left behind in camps, warped lumber, ash, and bikes. At the micro-level, glowsticks, nut shells, butts, flashers, etc. Doesn't mean that feathers aren't a particularly stupid component.

I did some MOOPing in a village that shall remain unnamed (not BDV) on Tuesday morning as I was waiting for my partner and our fellow traveller to be ready to depart (they were doing a line sweep in my fellow traveller's village). Because I was on crutches, I couldn't participate in the line sweep; Instead, I crawled around on the ground, covering a small perimeter around where our car was parked (I had kneepads on). This allowed me to do (I hope) a thorough job, but in a very tiny space. Nevertheless, I got a ridiculous amount of MOOP.

The worst offender: Wood splinters and pine needles (?!). Hundreds of each. Other notable offenders: About a dozen each of sequins, cigarette butts, small pieces of plastic, tiny bits of feathers, pieces of fluff/fur, bits of ash/charcoal from the nearby burn barrel. Several each of food wrappers, bottle caps, leaves (?!), zip ties, bits of paper.

I don't know what was with the pine needles, but there were a lot of those, and I'm pretty sure they count as a restricted item.

As for the wood splinters... those are, of course, not restricted, but they were a huge MOOP problem (at least in this particular village). My partner also found hundreds of those in his line sweep (a few hundred feet away from where I was). Obviously, wood can't be restricted, but perhaps a set of "best practices" for handling wood on the playa without MOOPing need to be developed and shared around.

I suspect that at least some of the wood splinters near me, as well as the pine needles, and leaves, fell out of the burn barrel (or perhaps more accurately, didn't make it in, being blown away by the hot-air currents as they were being dumped in). Maybe the burn barrels need to have a better catchment system for stuff that falls/blows out of them.

Last edited by catinthefunnyhat on Fri Sep 14, 2012 8:49 am, edited 1 time in total.

If you want drama to stop following you everywhere, try letting go of the leash.

However,I think I finally realized why I'm a bit resistant to critize chicken girl and her costume. The fact is, almost anything that anyone brings to the playa has the potential to become MOOP. Why is so much empases placed on what people bring, when the blame should be directed at people not being responsible for what they choose to bring?

JKhttp://www.mudskippercafe.comWhen I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle.Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.

probabilities, JK. the thing about feathers is that it's pretty much impossible to secure them in a way that will ensure mooplessness ... and it's also impossible to be aware of what your costume is doing 100% or the time. even if you did notice a bit of feather falling off, you may not be able to get to it, considering wind, other people, &c.

i had a hat in 2009 with $1 store flowers sewn into it. i sewed and sewed and sewed those damned things on, but always seemed to notice some little piece missing. and they probably aren't as bad as feathers.

I believe at some point more than a decade ago that feathers, specifically cheap feather boas, stood out as being particularly prone to disintegrating in the wind. AFAIK cheap feather boas, headdresses, etc. are still on the shelves of the costume stores where dumbasses shop to look like they belong at bunringman. People are suggestive. They see pictures of chicken costumes, palm fronds, and whatnot at bunringman, and then try to replicate it on a budget the weekend before they go. Hence the formal/informal warnings, blablabla.

Bounce530 wrote:You can leave comments on her pictures on her f/b. I did.

She's pretty quick to delete some posts though..she deleted one of my comments already, but has responded to another. Of course her response was a full of her self burnier than thou statement.(High five to Simon)

However,I think I finally realized why I'm a bit resistant to critize chicken girl and her costume. The fact is, almost anything that anyone brings to the playa has the potential to become MOOP. Why is so much empases placed on what people bring, when the blame should be directed at people not being responsible for what they choose to bring?

So some ego-hound skins a chicken to look good, we all can't be blessed with inner beauty. Besides she deserves to be gloriously self indulgent -"because I spend days post-burn picking up everyone's garbage."

She picked up EVERYONE'S garbage, of course she can be trusted to take care of her own tail feathers.

Lonesomebri wrote:So some ego-hound skins a chicken to look good, we all can't be blessed with inner beauty. Besides she deserves to be gloriously self indulgent -"because I spend days post-burn picking up everyone's garbage."

She picked up EVERYONE'S garbage, of course she can be trusted to take care of her own tail feathers.

It's the same girl. Plus the moopy crap in her Facebook photo. And in a photo book on BM besides. Maybe we should crucify the photogs as well? Not to mention they are profiting off the event by photographing their friends in fucking feathery crap.